Shortly after the passing of the great HarloldRamis, it became apparent that Hollywood hadn't given up the ghost on Ghostbusters 3. The silver lining on this news was always the attachment of the Ghostbusters' original director Ivan Reitman, but now he's abandoning the long-awaited sequel.

Harold Ramis — director and co-writer of Groundhog Day and the brains behind the Ghostbusters…
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In a long and rumor smashing interview with Deadline, Reitman explained why he had decided to NOT direct the new Ghostbusters picture, although he will stay on as producer, which we guess is something. Plus Reitman breaks down all the different Bill Murray rumors and sets the record straight on the actor's actual involvement.

"The first [Ghostbusters 3 script] was done by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, and me, Harold and Dan helped them on it," Reitman said. "It was a really good script, but then it became clear that Bill really didn't want to do another Ghostbusters and that it was literally impossible to find him to speak to for the year or two we tried to get it going. When Bill finally…well, he never actually said no, but he never said yes, so there was no way to make that film. We decided to start over again, and I started working with Etan Cohen, with Dan lending a helping hand. Harold got sick about three years ago, and we kept hoping he would get better. I kept pushing forward on the Etan Cohen and we now have a draft that is very good, that the studio is very excited about.

"It's a version of Ghostbusters that has the originals in a very minor role," he said. "When I came back from Harold's funeral, it was really moving and it made me think about a lot of things. I'd just finished directing Draft Day, which I'm really happy with and proud of. Working on a film that is smaller and more dramatic was so much fun and satisfying. I just finally met with Amy and Doug Belgrad when I got back. I said I'd been thinking about it for weeks, that I'd rather just produce this Ghostbusters. I told them I thought I could help but let's find a really good director and make it with him. So that's what we've agreed will happen. I didn't want all kinds of speculation about what happened with me, that is the real story."

He continues on explaining that once they find a director (they are already compiling a short list) the production will most likely start in New York in 2015. Sounds like there is no avoiding it. So let's all keep our fingers and toes crossed for this one.